Shaping Learning For Life
Music at Stockbridge
The National Curriculum for Music says that children should be inspired to develop a love of music throughout their education. Children learn to perform, listen to and evaluate music across a range of historical periods and genres. They experiment with sound on both tuned and un-tuned instruments and compose their own music for a range of purposes learning to notate as we go.
Our aim is to enable our children to develop their musical playing skills as well as their understanding of the inter-related dimensions of music – pitch, duration, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and structure. Using and understanding this vocabulary is of paramount importance to develop our children as musicians.
In our Early Years settings, children are exposed to music all day every day with lots of songs, rhythm patterns and instruments forming part of the daily routines. In KS1 and KS2, the children’s knowledge and skill level develops during their rota of half hourly deep learning slots.
Musician of the week
We believe that exposing the children to a broad range of musicians is so important for developing a rich musical curriculum – that’s why we have introduced our Musician of the half term.
Each six weeks, Mrs Cooper chooses a musician or band for the children across the school to listen to and unpick in their classes. This is played in classrooms and assemblies for the half term, so that all children become familiar with the pieces and can talk about them in terms of the interrelated dimensions (we have one linked to each half term).
We can really delve deeper into understanding how this fits with music we might be familiar with – and introduce some other genres too. This year we’ve already explored George Michael, Ravi Shankar, Mary J Blige and Foo Fighters.
Stockbridge has talent!
Our annual talent show gives children the opportunity to demonstrate their musical skills with several composing pieces of their own, others showcasing their emerging talents on instruments and others taking the time to show off their voices.
We’re really proud that we kept this going throughout lockdown, giving children a chance to come together and celebrate each other. The picture shows Joshua playing his guitar and making his own video to upload to the talent show’s Google Classroom page.
Direct access to learning instruments
We believe that every child should learn to play at least one musical instrument as part of regular curriculum time.
We were lucky enough to receive a Music for all grant and funds from a local cinema group which have enabled us to fund instruments for each class.
Class |
Which instrument do they learn? |
| EYFS | Our children learn to experiment with the sounds of instruments and create their own music – whether that be a superhero theme tune to add a backdrop to their Batman role play or experimenting with sticks on different objects during Forest School. |
| Redbridge | The children each have their own P-Buzz (beginner’s trombone) to master – this is perfect for developing an understanding of dynamics! |
| Horsebridge | This class are lucky enough to be learning the Ocarina. Mrs Hillman was very proud of their recent rendition of London’s Burning! |
| Mottisfont & Clatford | We have a class set of ukuleles that our Upper School get the chance to learn. This is quite a skill so we believe dedicating time to this throughout 4/5/6 gives them a chance to hone their techniques! |
In addition to this, music lessons are available from Year 3 onwards with specialist music teachers from small, independent providers who are specialists in their field. Very often, children come to music lessons having experienced a musical instrument at home or in their music curriculum lessons. Many of our children undertake graded exams for their chosen instrument too.
There is the option to hire a musical instrument so you can see if your child takes to it before necessarily committing a huge amount of money towards one! Individual music teachers deal with payment separately to the school and liaise with parents directly.
Music in the curriculum
Music is built into the curriculum each term, delivered by either class teachers, PPA teachers or music specialists.
Children in key stage 1 familiarise themselves with a range of instruments, largely untuned percussion, explore timbre, dynamic and rhythm. We want to give children a love of music in all its forms. We are developing our singing curriculum alongside Mr Seymour who is the Music lead at Romsey Abbey.
In Years 5 & 6, children have experienced a wide range of instruments, take part in singing lessons and sing up choir, sing at the O2 with Young Voices and generally follow their interests in a particular instrument or develop their knowledge of more complex musical concepts and composition.
Other opportunities
Working with experts and having exposure to high-quality live music is so important. Children at Stockbridge have access to;
- Workshops from Hampshire Music Service
- Singing workshops with Sing Up Ambassadors
- Peripatetic guitar, ukulele and piano lessons – with regular concerts for peers and parents
- Young Voices
- Choir club and Recorder club
- Skills week (an opportunity to showcase musical talents)
- Musical parents playing carols around the Christmas Tree